Dear Reader, The book you are holding in your hands is today more relevant than ever. It is unlikely that anyone would doubt Russia’s need in highly skilled engineers. The country requires a breakthrough in science and technology. This means that the time has come to bet on innovative development, drawing on the rich history of Russian engineering. For a number of centuries Russia enjoyed undisputed leadership in science and engineering breakthroughs. Its scientists and inventors were pioneers in many branches of science and technology. The discoveries they made changed our world, creating a new reality, earning admiration for our country and respect as a superpower. The main goal of this book is to remind people of the outstanding contributions our engineers have made towards the progress of science and technology, to teach the younger generations about Russian history and to tell them how interesting engineering can be. The generation of the 21st century should know about our compatriots, whose inventions and discoveries made such great contributions to human knowledge, and they should strive to meet or surpass those achievements. Despite the unquestionable difficulties of modern Russian industry, the professions of engineers, designers, and science workers are still prestigious and in demand. Developing unique technologies, constantly refining them and looking for new solutions expands the limits of the possible, making the future a reality today; those are the traditional principles our brilliant engineers were guided by. These same principles should also be the basis of how work is organised in any modern company. The book 100 Russian Engineers Who Changed Our Life is the important step towards the global changes needed to increase the competitiveness of Russian industry, the advancing of our science and creating of a true engineering elite. The Russian industrial renaissance must be based on respect for the great achievements of this country and the people who have come to symbolise the brilliance of great ideas and elegant practical solutions.

Oleg Deripaska Chairman of the Supervisory Board Basic Element Group

Contents PART 1 ORIGINS OF RUSSIAN TECH INNOVATIONS Theatre of the Lathe Andrey Nartov. Lathe with Adjustable Carriage

11 13

Seeing More 17 Mikhail Lomonosov. Telescopes, Night-vision Devices, Periscopes, and Other Optical Instruments

“The First, the One and Only” and His Turbine Pavel Kuzminsky. Radial Gas Turbine

71

Fire from the Sky Alexander Lodygin. Incandescent Light Bulb

137

Rival to Diesel Gustav Trinkler. Airless Injection Diesel Engine

75

141

Barge Hauler Who Designed a Tractor Fyodor Blinov. Tracked Tractor

79

Conqueror of the Sun Alexander Stoletov. Photoelectric Cell Based on the External Photoelectric Effect

145

Providing the Country with Coal Alexey Bakhmutsky. First Coal Mining Machine

83

Wireless Telegraphy Alexander Popov. Radio Making Communications More Reliable Valentin Vologdin. A High-voltage Rectifier with a Liquid Mercury Cathode

149

Just a Lab Assistant Oleg Losev. Amplifying and Generating Semiconductor. Light Diode

153

Thirty Patents of Father Pavel Pavel Florensky. The First All-purpose Russian Plastic

159

The Man Who Tamed Fire Ivan Polzunov. Steam Machine and Two-cylinder Steam Engine

21

Jack of All Trades and a Gearbox Ivan Kulibin. Self-propelled Cart

25

First Minister of the First Railways Pavel Melnikov. St. Petersburg-Moscow Railway

91

High-grade Steel Semyon Badaev. Badaev Steel

29

95

Telegraph of the Russian Cagliostro Pavel Schilling. Electromagnetic Telegraph

33

Major General for Eight Spans Stanisáaw KierbedĨ. The Blagoveshchensky Bridge across the Neva River

37

Bridge to the Future Dmitry Zhuravsky. Trelliswork Structure of the Verebya Bridge

99

Steam Train in the Stone Belt Yefim and Miron Cherepanov. The First Russian Railway The Bayard of the Engineering Corps Karl Schilder. Submarine

41

PART 2 INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

PART 3 ROAD TO TOMORROW

47

89

Electric Traction Instead of Horses Fyodor Pirotsky. Electric Tram

103

Spanning Distant Shores Lavr Proskuryakov. Designing Bridges across Siberian Rivers

107

Above Water and Ground Vladimir Levkov. Air Cushion Vehicle

PART 5 SCIENCE IN CHASE FOR PRACTICE

165

The Man Who Measured the Sun 167 Witold Ceraski. Astronomical Photometric Devices. Heliometer for Measuring Solar Compression

Representative of Russian Science Pyotr Kapitsa. Expansion Turbine— A Highly Efficient Gas Liquefier

205

How Crystals Grow Alexey Shubnikov. Modern Crystallography and Piezoelectric Textures

211

Aluminium for the Wings Ivan Sidorin. Kolchugalumin (Russian Duralumin)

215

Scientific Way of Inventing Heinrich Altschuller. Theory of Inventive Problem Solving

219

PART 6 RUNNING AHEAD OF TIME

225

Film Instead of Glass Ivan Boldyrev. The First Light Sensitive Non-combustible Photographic Film

227

The Great-Grandfather of Hollywood Joseph Timchenko. Movie Camera

231

Russia in Colour Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky. Colour Photography

235

The Motion of the Stars Aristarkh Belopolsky. Spectrograph

171

3D Fairy Tales Wladislaw Starewicz. 3D Animation

241

111

In Search of Beauty Vladimir Shukhov. Shukhov Towers

175

Live Images at Home Boris Rosing. Cathode Ray Tube

245

Creator of the Russian Automotive Industry Andrey Liphart. Pobeda Vehicle

115

Engineer and Governor Pyotr Shilovsky. Gyroscopic Equipment

181

Poetry of Pins Alexander Alexeyev. Pin Screen

249

121

A Rainbow in Ordinary Leaves Mikhail Tsvet. Chromatography

185

253

Reaching the Depths Matvey Kapelyushnikov. Turbodrill

189

How the Screen Began to Speak Alexander Shorin. Optical System for Recording and Reproducing Sound onto Motion Picture Film

193

The Founder of Television Vladimir Zvorykin. Electronic Television

257

Synthetic “Tree Tears” Sergey Lebedev. Synthetic Rubber

261

Three-dimensional Meteorology Pavel Molchanov. Meteorological Radiosonde

197

Oscar for a Russian Engineer Alexander Poniatoff. Videotape Recorder Skyneedle Nikolay Nikitin. Ostankino TV Tower

265

In Search of Damascus Steel Pavel Anosov. Recovering the Secret of Damascus Steel

49

Prime Steel Dmitry Chernov. Metals Science and Reform of Steel Production

53

Wings for the Raketa Rostislav Alexeyev. Hydrofoils

First after Hephaestus Nikolay Benardos. Electric Arc Welding

57

PART 4 TAMING ELECTRICITY

Electrical Arc Revolution Nikolay Slavyanov. Arc Welding with Metallic Electrode

61

Engine Running on Unconventional Fuel Ignatiy (Ogneslav) Kostovic´. Petrol Engine

65

127

The Power of Electricity Boris Jacobi. Electric Motor with Direct Drive Line Rotation

129

“Russian Light” Pavel Yablochkov. Yablochkov Candle

133

What Can Stereograph Do? 201 Fyodor Drobyshev. Stereographs and Stereometers

PART 7 IN SEARCH OF SMART MACHINES

271

Wireless Control Nikolay Pilchikov. Wireless Control System

273

Automatic Call Mikhail (Moses) Freidenberg. Subscriber Preselector—A Device for Automatically Tracing the Subscriber That a Call is Being Made To

277

Harmless Printing Victor Gassiev. Phototypesetting Machine

281

At the Wave of a Hand Le´ on Theremin. Theremin

285

Music Drawings Evgeny Sholpo. Variophone, the Optical Synthesiser

291

Creating New Dimension Semyon Ivanov. 3D without Glasses

295

Sound from a Machine Evgeny Murzin. Electronic Synthesiser

299

PART 8 WARS ARE WON BY ENGINEERS

Katyusha for the Victory Vladimir Artemyev. Multiple Rocket Launcher Katyusha

333

Jet Airliner Andrey Tupolev. The First Soviet Jet Airliner. The World's First Supersonic Airliner

393

The Absolute Weapon Mikhail Kalashnikov. AK Assault Rifle

337

Sputnik and Gagarin Sergey Korolyov. First Artificial Satellite. First Human in Space

PART 9 FEEL THE SKY

343

From the Cell to Other Worlds Nikolay Kibalchich. Interplanetary Spacecraft Design

345

First Take-off Alexander Mozhaysky. The First Aircraft to Take Off

349

Flying the Scientific Way Nikolay Zhukovsky. Aerodynamics

353

Strategic Superhero Igor Sikorski. First Multi-engine Aircraft

357

Creator of the Flying Boat Dmitry Grigorovich. Specially Built Amphibious Plane

361

365

“Three-line Rifle” Sergey Mosin. The 1891 Bolt Action Rifle

307

Helicopters are the First Boris Yuriev. The Swash Plate for the Helicopter’s Rotor

369

Russian Smokeless Dmitry Mendeleyev. Pyrocollodion

311

The Road to Space Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Multistage Rocket Design

315

Science Against Gas Nikolay Zelinsky. High-efficiency Gas Mask

319

The Space Shuttle Engine Valentin Glushko. The ORM-1— Russia’s First Liquid Propellant Rocket

375

The Saving Dome Gleb Kotelnikov. Knapsack Parachute

379

The First Machine Gun Vladimir Fyodorov. “The Fyodorov Machine Gun”. The Prototype of Modern Automatic Weapons

323

To the Space on a Plane Friedrich Zander. Space Shuttle Aircraft Design. The First Soviet Rocket

383

T-34 Armoured Vehicle Mikhail Koshkin. T-34—The Best Battle Tank of World War II

327

Founding Father of Helicopter Nikolay Kamov. Autogyros and Helicopters with Coaxial Rotors Flying Tank Sergey Ilyushin. Ground Attack Aircraft with an Armoured Airframe

387

305

Thin Protection Georgy Flyorov. Track Membrane Technologies

457

Artificial Sun Lev Artsimovich. First Thermonuclear Reactor

461

399

Seeing the Invisible Boris Rauschenbach. Photographing the Dark Side of the Moon

405

PART 11 PUZZLE OUT THE DIGIT

469

Powerful Thrust Pavel Solovyov. Turbofan Jet Engine

411

Computer without Electronics Alexey Krylov. A Machine for Integrating Ordinary Differential Equations

Communication through Space Boris Chertok. Communications Satellites

415

The First Computer of the Old World Sergey Lebedev. First Supercomputer in Continental Europe

475

Rolling on the Moon Alexander Kemurdzhian. World’s First Planetary Rover

421

479

Combat “Crocodile” Mikhail Mil. The Most Successful Mass-produced Twin-engine Helicopter. An Attack Helicopter

427

Counting to Three Nikolay Brusentsov. Setun, the First Ternary Computer Using a Symmetrical Ternary Number System Unorthodox Computer Israel Akushsky. A Specialised Working Computer Having a Residue Number System to Speed Up the Calculation Process

483

List of Illustrations

488

PART 10 ALMIGHTY ATOM

433

Peaceful Atom Igor Kurchatov. The World’s First Nuclear Power Plant

435

2-D Meets 3-D Yuri Denisyuk. A Method for Recording Holograms

441

Nuclear Icebreaker Igor Afrikantov. Reactor for a Nuclear Icebreaker

445

The Most Important Invention Alexander Prokhorov, Nikolai Basov. Lasers

449

Invisibility Cloak Victor Veselago. Metamaterials

453

467